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Ask the Experts: The gardener

A section of my thuja hedge is completely overgrown. When can I cut it back? I Chapman, by e-mail

Thuja plicata (western red cedar) is an evergreen conifer with graceful, flattened sprays of mid to dark green aromatic foliage and shredding, cinnamon red-coloured bark. This fast-growing plant has a compact habit and can be clipped regularly, making it ideal for growing as a formal boundary hedge or garden screen; a height of about 6ft is ideal. To keep an established thuja hedge in check, it should be trimmed twice a year: once in late spring and again at the end of the summer.

This conifer will respond to hard pruning, but only if the branches are cut back to young shoots or “green” growth — thujas are very unlikely to resprout when you slice into the older wood. The best time to carry out any serious pruning work is in the